Sa-Ra the trio that have shaken up Hip-Hop with their independently released Hollywood Recordings are not necessarily your generic group of guys with catchy hooks and fancy foot work. Om’Mas, Shafiq and Taz were snapped up by the Louis Vuitton Don, Kanye West and given a deal through his G.O.O.D Music imprint. After the success of Hollywood Recordings Hip-Hop fans are waiting patiently for what else they have on offer. Here at femalefirst.co.uk we caught up with Taz who allowed us to get to know him just a little bit more. And see what he has to say on fashion and style in my blog, coming soon.

You have been hailed as Hip-Hops saviors and its future after Hollywood Recordings, how do you hope to live up to peoples expectations
Just by being true to my creativity and also the influences of the universe and paying attention to all the other people that are creative and which sparks other creative ideas in my mind.
It is hard to pinpoint where your real inspirations lie as your music incorporates many different genres of music. Can you break down some of your inspirations
I would say from the jazz realm, basically everybody you might have heard of. From Max Roach to Jon Coltrane, Duke Ellington, everybody; just everyone who was putting out records as basically we study the music that has been left behind, you know the final record or CDs or what not. So also the new wave invasion, groups like The Smiths, Human League, Duran Duran, Sade, Soul II Soul, that whole European movement and then of course Hip-Hop. We were groomed and raised in the Hip-Hop era, so all of those genres have influenced our style as well as all those people have very eccentric personalities and therefore they would depict themselves visually the way they felt inside. They reflected their creative minds, like Prince, Jimmy Hendrix, James Brown, and Boy George, everybody that was fresh. I was lucky growing up having access to music from all around the world, Bob Marley, people who were genius’s and free.
You have produced for a wide variety of artists, some you have listed above. Do you approach things differently when producing for yourself
There is a difference, definitely. I am in the middle of recording my album right now, we are all involved in the various projects as well as more Sa Ra stuff and the challenge is for me to do something and put some extremes together that have never been put together before. Create something new for people, not my entertainment or my ego, just make something delightful that we can all enjoy, including myself. That is the difference between me producing for myself or us producing for Sa Ra or producing for anybody else. There is a big compromise if you are working with anybody outside of yourself. When you work with yourself you don’t have to compromise. I might have a new idea waiting to get off and I can’t expect someone to take a chance on an unproven idea if their livelihood is at stake depending upon what type of records they put out.
You were more accepted in Europe before you were in the US, would you agree with that
I would definitely say Europe as that is the western civilization and America is the reflection of Europe so to speak ‘old York and new York’ you know what I am saying? So being that there are many different people of free will and who are pushing forward to be free and to do whatever they see fit, I would see those people having embraced us just as much as America. But North America is given music through the media and you have to be a part of a larger network to even touch the people out here sometimes. Dealing with London and different parts of Europe, it is more that people are seeking out something new and are explorers to a big degree. I would say a lot of western civilization has kind of perpetuated its inhibitors to be explorers and seek out a higher quality or frequency. So it doesn’t surprise me that Europe gravitated towards our offering of doing something so originally unique and it doesn’t surprise me that they appreciate the efforts that we make.
How tough a market then is America to crack if the media are pushing generic sounding music to the masses
Well it is going through a transitional phase of basically like rhetoric being pushed out by major corporations. Then people have their own creative free will and they are thinking for themselves, we are going through a transition right now the younger people and the free thinking people. It is like resurgence like the Hippy thing. It is so wack now that it is going to have to break. When the Hippy thing came in it was such a relief and I can see that coming for people.
Do you think the problem lies with those who buy the music as opposed to the industry itself
Not really because they don’t know what’s out there. The only thing that is out there is what the corporations want to put out and that there is the whole issue. We look at television, in the states or the media at large, as the equivalent as a God. People believe whatever is on television. Whether it is true or not, if people were to get on TV and say the world was ending, people would really believe that. We are all taught to believe what we see on TV and not pay attention to our own senses. You don’t look to people in your community and even your parents; because they are not on TV it is like they are not real. So you don’t respect their opinion. But the minute one of your friends gets on television then he is an important person. He has money and he is seen as the truth. It is that simple to out maneuver the masses.

Being that you are so different in your approach and your style to what the TV is choking us with, was it a no brainer to sign with Kanye West
Kanye is a like minded person; he is like a creative brother. We all come from a similar consciousness and we are alike in a lot of different ways, so yes it was natural. Linking with a person who is also pushing the creative envelope and who is also in a position to help facilitate our music being heard is a great thing.

When can we hear something from you on G.O.O.D music
We have another album coming out on Umbiquity which is coming out in the winter which is similar to Hollywood recordings, then there will be the proper Sa Ra album dropping at the end of this year and that is the G.O.O.D Music album.

Melanie J Cornish